Skin Deep
by Maladicta
Summary: What do you do when your friends hate you, some freak starts stalking you, the football teams loses the Finals... and you find out you're a mutant.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer. I don't own Logan (but if I did imagine the things I'd do!) or any other recognizable characters. Now be good little people and review. I also don't see a point in writing disclaimers for every chapter I write on any of my fan-fics; so don't bother looking 'cause they're not there. I don't like uploading as a html, so these --- stand for the little dots.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Theo winced as another balloon popped. The kids' birthday party at the table behind them was in full swing. Ten six year olds hyped up on sugar and cake, bursting balloons and shrieking. She could feel a headache coming on. Bambi was making a face in her latté. Theo smiled.  
  
"You gunna' get wrinkles doin' that."  
  
She said. Bambi poked her tongue out at her.  
  
"Shut up Theo."  
  
She snarled playfully  
  
"How can you stand those little brats?"  
  
Shay asked, rubbing her temples.  
  
"I'm going insane!"  
  
Theodora laughed, and then winced as she felt the split in her lip reopen. Daddy'd been late last night, and he'd come home mean.  
  
"Hey y'all, I'll be back in a sec, 'kay?" Theo said.  
  
Rising she made her way to the mall entrance.  
  
The café they'd been sitting at, Marty's, was new and as yet had no bathrooms, so patrons were redirected into the mall to use the public ones. Theo pushed open the door and regarded herself in the mirrors. Long auburn hair pulled back into a horses' tail, green eyes, smooth, clear ivory skin, and full red lips. Theo knew she was beautiful, everyone said so, her friends Miller, Shay, Bambi, the whole squad thought so, her mom, the football team. Theo smothered a giggle, especially the football team. Theo was five foot four and gorgeous. She knew it and she liked to think everyone else knew it too.  
  
Blotting at her bloody lip she thought back to last night. Daddy'd come home smelling of whisky and cheep perfume, Momma'd had dinner waiting since six, it was going on nine when he'd stumbled through the door. The fight that'd followed had been a big one, the best in weeks. Momma'd broken grandma's vase and Daddy'd blackened both Momma's eyes. Theo'd gotten home just after the screaming match had started. When Daddy'd finished with Momma he'd started on her 'How dare she get home so late--- etc, etc, etc." Theo slowly revolved her jaw with her hand, at least it wasn't broken. She could just imagine turning up to practice with her jaw all wired, the squad'd kill her.  
  
Blotting the last drops of blood from her lip Theo reapplied her lipstick and left the bathroom. 


	2. Chapter 2

Logan ground his jaw silently at the racket the brats in front of him were making. There were balloons and cake everywhere, not to mention shrieking six year olds. A proud little boy was tearing birthday paper and holding aloft a toy gun, one of the ones that kept going rat-a-tat-tat even after you'd stood on it a couple of times. He was promptly removed of his burden by his mother, who tucked the gun behind her chair. Logan went back to his newspaper.  
  
.........  
  
Emma looked around at all the mess. Cake was everywhere and so were the balloons. Tommy's mom had ordered them special, extra big. Grinning Emma gave up at gazing at Tommy's presents and started to chase a big blue balloon.  
  
.........  
  
Theo walked out of the mall and glanced at the road in front of her. She was running before the woman started to scream.  
  
........  
  
Logan dropped his paper a second before the woman overseeing the birthday party started shrieking, one of the kids was in the middle of the road holding and oversized blue balloon, there was a Mac truck about three meters away from her. With a dull certainty Logan knew he could never make it in time.  
  
.........  
  
Emma stared in terror at the giant grill roaring down on her; she barely registered the body flying into hers.  
  
........  
  
Theo stared down at the little girl held tightly in her arms then up at the grill of the truck bearing down on them. It was less then half a meter away, there was no time to run. A man standing not to far from the kids' party table caught Theo's attention; she saw her terror reflected in his eyes. Wrapping her arms tighter around the child she lowered her head and waited.  
  
.......  
  
Logan watched as the girl grabbed the kid, he noted the length between the truck and them, a little less then half a meter. The girl turned and stared directly at him, her eyes showed pure terror. She broke contact and lowered her head, her body curling uselessly around the child's, trying to give her some form of protection from the forty-ton truck heading straight for them.  
  
...........  
  
The last thing Theo saw before the truck hit was the reflection of the sunlight on the giant blue balloon the kid was clutching. 


	3. Chapter 3

It took Logan's mind a second to register the explosion of light, by the time it did the truck had roared past and the tiny blue and green lights were reforming themselves back into flesh and blood.  
  
Theo stared stupidly down at the little girl clutched tightly in her arms. She blinked. Sound reinserted itself. She blinked again. Finally she opened her mouth and breathed. A hysterical woman pulled the child out of her arms and Theo's friends were surrounding her, the last thing she saw before she fainted was the puzzled expression on the face of the guy she'd been staring at before the truck had hit.  
  
.........  
  
"---mild shock--- extremely surprised--- miracle."  
  
Theo was trying to concentrate on Dr O'Neil's words; the only one that was sticking though was 'miracle'. Shay had insisted that Theo get checked out, Bambi'd agreed, though she'd spent the entire trip looking sideways at her. Theo started to shiver, and found she couldn't stop.  
  
.........  
  
"So you rest up now."  
  
Shay called as Theo walked up the steps to the porch.  
  
"The big game's tomorrow,"  
  
She grinned wickedly  
  
"And so's the after party."  
  
Theo waved as Shay gunned the engine and roared back down the road. The big game, Theo'd almost forgotten, the Tigers were playing the 'Cats and the squad was trying out the new routine. Theo let herself in wondering briefly at the silence, then she remembered, Momma was working late at the diner, the baby was with Aunt Marge, and Daddy, well Theo didn't really give a shit where Daddy was, as long as he wasn't anywhere near her. Closing the door behind her Theo made her way to her room. Stripping off her clothes she kicked them into a corner and went to have a shower.  
  
.........  
  
Bianca picked up the phone and smiled, the position of head cheerleader would be hers in no time.  
  
"Hi Jenny, it's me Bambi, you're never going to guess what happened this afternoon---"  
  
..........  
  
Logan pulled up at a cheap motel outside of town, the sign declared it 'The Paradise Inn', it had vacancies and at the moment Logan didn't much care if it was called 'The Cockroach Inn', he was tired, though a bed wasn't the only thing on his mind. Logan took out the purse he'd slipped into his pocket during all the confusion. It was black material with some form of red flowers sewn all over it. Opening it up Logan found an I.D card.  
  
"Theodora Jennifer Rosellenii, age,"  
  
Logan added and subtracted months and dates in his head  
  
"Fifteen."  
  
Logan checked the back of the card  
  
"Goes to Jefferson High. Interesting."  
  
Logan thought back to the events that had happened that afternoon and debated whether or not to call New York.  
  
...........  
  
After her shower Theo spent the rest of the night practicing for tomorrow nights' game. Just before she went to bed she noticed her purse was missing, and, not for the first time that night cursed the events that had happened that afternoon. 


	4. Chapter 4

Theo awoke to the sound of screams, Bobby's screams. Moaning she rolled out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom. The slight swelling in her lip had gone down and she looked almost normal. Stripping off her pajamas Theo went to have a shower.  
  
"Morning love."  
  
Theo's mom smiled at her over her morning cup of coffee. Theo glanced hurriedly towards her parent's bedroom as Bobby started wailing again. Her mother moved quickly to shush him. She wasn't quick enough.  
  
"Grace! Shut that kid up!"  
  
Her father's angry voice yelled from their bedroom. A minuet later his footsteps could be heard stalking down the hall.  
  
"If you don't shut that brat up so help me god I'll kill it!"  
  
Theo's mother was trying desperately to stop Bobby's wails. Her father stalked over to the basinet and roughly yanked her brother into the air by his arm.  
  
"Did you hear me woman?!"  
  
He started to shake Bobby, whose screams only increased in pitch. It had been four years since Theo had last stood up to her father, that small piece of rebellion had earned her and arm fractured in three places, she'd been careful never to do it again, until now.  
  
With a scream of rage Theo launched herself at her father, drawing her arm back she raked her fingernails across his cheek. Bob Rosellenii dropped his son back in his basinet and turned to his daughter. Gripping her arm her pulled back his hand and landed a back handed blow that sent her stumbling back, grabbing her by the throat with one giant paw he pulled her forward then with all his strength threw her backwards. Now on any other day there would have been a nice, soft sofa to stop Theo's impromptu flight, but today was the day that her mother cleaned the house, which entailed the moving of all furniture from its original position. Without the sofa to stop her flight she kept going, right through the widow.  
  
.........  
  
Logan's eye was caught by a flyer in the coffee shop's window; actually the same flyer seemed to be up in every window in the main street. It was advertising a football match tonight over at the school. The picture on the flyer showed a girl and a guy. The girl was perched on his shoulder and was giving the camera a toothy smile while holding aloft a pair of pompoms. A closer look revealed the girl to be Theodora. Logan couldn't help but feel sympathy for the Head Cheerleader who was about to have her life turned upside down. 


	5. Chapter 5

Theo was late to school that morning. Which wasn't much of a surprise. It'd taken her a while to get ready after the... incident. What was a surprise was the hostility that she was greeted with when she got there. Eyes followed her down the school corridors and whispers dogged her steps. During lunch Shay approached her cautiously.

"Hey Theo," she said. Theo looked up startled. Shay was the only person so far today who'd spoken to her directly. And it wasn't even like she'd done anything! Probably some jealous senior bitch thought Theo was on to her boyfriend or something.

"Hey Shay. You would not believe the morning I had! First I had shit at home, then I had to walk to school and then when I got here it was like I'd slept with the swim team or something." Theo's eyes caught Shay's. The person looking out wasn't here friend.

"Or something," was all Shay said, her eyes were cold. Theo was about to ask what she meant when Meg, the youngest member of the team, bounced up.

"Hey The', you cool for the game thisarvo? We missed you 'smorning," Theo looked over at Meg with a smile.

"Yeah I'll be fine, just had some problems at home, s'all." Meg smiled

"Cool, well the game's on in an hour, so we better head down to the locker rooms to get ready." Theo wondered if her bruise was coming through. Turning to see if Shay was coming she found to her surprised that she'd already left. Theo couldn't suppress the surge of hurt she felt. Shay was her best friend. They'd shared everything. But apparently not anymore. It couldn't have been what happened yesterday... could it?

As the girls walked down towards the locker rooms Theo let Meg's inane chatter fill her ears until one word caught her attention.

"What did you say?" Theo demanded. Meg looked around guiltily.

"I... I'm sure its not true or anything Theo, its just what I heard some guys saying this morning, that's all."

"What!?"

"They're just rumours is all, really Theo you don't have to be upset it's-" with a growl Theo slammed Meg up against the lockers hard enough to make her wince.

"What, the fuck, did you say?" Meg was gasping, and there was real fear in her eyes.

"There's a rumor going around that you're some kind of freak. A mutant." Theo dropped Meg like she was on fire.

"That's bullshit. You know that. You know me."

"Yeah, I like so totally agree. You know I'd never believe that shit." She gave a high-pitched little giggle, but her eyes held within them a hint of fear.

Logan made his way to a seat in the bleachers and waited for the game to start. He was glad he'd decided to arrive early. There was still half an hour to go but the stadium was already three quarters full. Marching bands from both schools were moving around the field making a lot of unnecessary, unpleased and excessive noise. They were dressed head to toe in their schools colours and Logan though personally that they resembled rather strange pieces of fruit. Suddenly a roar erupted from the crowd. The cheerleaders from both teams were making their way into the grounds. 'Girls and short skirts' thought Logan wirily, did it every time. It was just a pity they didn't sell beer at these games.

Theo really didn't want to go out there tonight. She had no choice. But it still didn't stop her from not wanting to go out. She was tired, sore, expecting her period and was being stared at. Constantly. It was getting on her nerves. But it was too late to say anything now. She'd have to squash the rumor after they won. Everyone would be in a better frame of mind then anyway. Not that she was counting on that. She wasn't a Mutant. And her friends just needed to realize this. What happened yesterday was just... weird. That's all. And it wouldn't happen again. That didn't make her a Mutant. Not at all. A small part of Theo hoped her friends would be easier to convince than she was.

As the night progressed Theo found herself enjoying the game more and more. She was able to put everything that had happened in the past couple of days out of her mind. However it all came rushing back at half time.

"Okay girls." Theo stood addressing her team members on the pitch. "We had a great first half and the second half's gunna be even better. So I want you to all take a break, have a drink, something to eat. But not too much." The last comment got some laughs and a few smiles. Everyone remembered what happened to Jill. "I'll see you all back here in a half hour, 'kay guys?" a chorus of agreements came back and the girls started wandering off in ones and two's.

The canteen was well and truly packed by the time Theo got off the field. She was just contemplating going in search of a vending machine when someone grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the mass of people and into the shadow of the bleachers. Theo yanked her arm back angrily.

"Danny that was not funny!" she snarled. Only the boy, man, who's grabbed her wasn't Danny.

"Who are you?" Theo whispered.

"I'm a friend. Listen kid, I saw what happened yesterday, I-" Theo cut him off, her voice strangely high pitched.

'What do you mean!? Nothing happened yesterday! Nothing! Do you hear me!?" She tried to leave but the guy grabbed her arm again and pulled her full against his body.

"I know what you are." With a scream Theo managed to pull an arm free, and with a cry she raked her nails across her assailants face. It didn't seem to faze him, and as Theo watched the bloody slices close she understood why.

"You're a mutant." It was a statement, not a question.

"So are you."

"No."

Theo jerked as the buzzer for the second half sounded. She almost hit the wall as the guy let her go. Suddenly she was on her ass with her wallet in her lap. The guy was nowhere to be seen.

With a sob of frustration she legged it back to the pitch.


End file.
